Two-Thirds of Provisional ballots Counted, But Wide Variations Between States

By David PacePublished March 18th 2005 in The Californian: North County Times

WASHINGTON
-- Two-thirds of the more than 1.6 million provisional ballots cast in
last year's presidential election were counted, but there were wide
differences from state to state. Alaska counted 97 percent of its
provisional votes, Delaware just 6 percent.

The figures are from
a study by electionline.org, a nonpartisan clearinghouse for election
reform information. It is the most comprehensive look yet at how states
implemented the major change to grow out of the 2000 presidential vote
in Florida, when administrative errors and voter registration database
problems kept thousands of eligible voters from casting ballots.

In
the 43 states where data were available, provisional votes accounted
for just over 1 percent of the total votes counted. In Alaska, 7.2
percent of all the votes counted came from provisional ballots, the
highest of any state.

A
law enacted by Congress in 2002 required all states to adopt procedures
to allow people whose names are not on voter lists but who believe they
are registered to cast ballots that can be checked later to verify
their eligibility. The law left it up to states to implement the
provisional voting rules.

Provisional voting "was a success in
many ways in terms of what happened in 2000 when people were turned
away and had no fail-safe way of voting," said Elizabeth Schneider, one
of the authors of the study. "With provisional balloting in place, a
majority of the people were not turned away; they were given a chance
to vote."

The electionline.org study found that 70 percent of
provisional ballots were counted in states with rules that deemed such
ballots valid if cast anywhere in the voter's county or township. In
states that required provisional ballots to be cast in the voter's
correct precinct to be valid, only 62 percent were counted.

Counting
procedures also varied from county to county in some states. In
Arizona, for example, state rules required that provisional ballots
must be cast in the correct precinct to be counted. But at least two
counties, Gila and Pinal, counted provisional ballots that were cast in
the wrong precinct.

While Alaska counted the highest percentage
of provisional votes, five other states -- Oregon, Washington,
Nebraska, Ohio and Colorado -- counted more than 75 percent. Five
states besides Delaware -- Hawaii, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Kentucky and
Indiana -- counted less than 15 percent of such ballots.

The
study cautioned that comparisons between states are difficult because
of widely varying rules governing such ballots. In Vermont, for
example, only 101 provisional votes were cast and just 37 counted.
Unlike other states, Vermont allows voters to make a sworn affidavit at
the polling place on Election Day and cast a regular ballot.

The
most significant difference among state rules for counting provisional
ballots is the requirement over where they must be cast. Twenty-nine
states count such ballots only if they are cast in the voter's correct
precinct, while 17 count them if they are in the correct county or
township. Four states are not required to offer provisional ballots
because they permit voters to register on Election Day, and one --
North Dakota -- does not require registration.

The
electionline.org study included data from 43 states and the District of
Columbia. Missing were Mississippi, New York and New Jersey, which have
not reported the number of provisional ballots cast and counted, and
the five states that do not have provisional voting.